CHAPTER XXX 



THE AEBOEEAL ACTIVITIES OF MODERN MAN 



IF tree-climbing has done so much for the human stock, 

 and if the arboreal habit is, so to speak, so near to the 

 basis of humanity, it is natural to inquire into the evidences 

 of the retention of this ancestral habit in existing man. 

 What abilities to lead an arboreal life are manifested in 

 existing man ? 



In such an inquiry we are liable to be led astray by 

 many things, but none more likely to distort our outlook 

 than the fact that modern civilized man has learned to 

 climb. Schoolboys are taught to climb a rope upon 

 lines altogether different from those employed by their 

 Primate ancestors. A white man " shins " up a pole 

 in a fashion foreign to the arboreal Primates; he clasps 

 it with his knees, and with his locked legs and feet, and 

 by approximating this hold to his hand-grasp, he clumsily 

 and slowly progresses upwards. The European small 

 boy climbs a tree in true monkey fashion till he comes 

 to a branch which is nearly perpendicular, and then his 

 only resort is to " swarm " up it. The European man has 

 perfected his knee and leg grasp by a mechanical con- 

 trivance known to schoolboys as climbing irons, which 

 are furnished with spikes at the points where the legs 

 are most adopted to hugging the branch. 



This method of climbing is, however, a mere adaptation 

 to the handicap imposed by long civilization and the habit 

 of wearing boots. It is a confession that the plastic foot- 

 grasp is lost. Unbooted races do not " swarm " or 

 " shin " up trees, but many of them have learned some 

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